respondent

Definition

The official legal term for the person on the receiving end of a petition or appeal, essentially the defendant with a fancier title. In market research, it's someone who actually bothered to fill out your survey instead of immediately closing the tab. Either way, they're responding to something, whether it's legal action or questions about their toilet paper preferences.

Example Usage

Of the 10,000 emails sent, only 847 respondents completed the customer satisfaction survey, and half of them just selected the middle option for everything.

Source: Common legal and research terminology

Related Terms

Intermediate

Due Process

The constitutional guarantee that the government cannot take away your life, liberty, or property without following proper procedures — which, given how slowly the legal system moves, means they will get around to it eventually.

⚖️ Legal

Beginner

Objection

The one legal term everyone learned from television, shouted dramatically in courtrooms to interrupt opposing counsel, usually followed by a judge saying "overruled" and the lawyer sitting down looking defeated. The legal equivalent of raising your hand to tattle.

⚖️ Legal

Beginner

contracts

Legally binding agreements between parties that courts will actually enforce, assuming they meet technical requirements like consideration and mutual assent. The documents that make business relationships official and lawyers wealthy. Breaking them leads to lawsuits; reading them carefully before signing is something everyone should do but rarely does.

⚖️ Legal

Intermediate

peremptory challenge

The right to reject a certain number of prospective jurors without stating a reason, though the reason is usually written all over the attorney's face. Cannot be used for discriminatory purposes, theoretically.

⚖️ Legal

Intermediate

promissory

Containing a promise or pledge of future action, most famously in 'promissory note'—that IOU your friend gave you that you'll never actually collect on. In legal contracts, these provisions bind parties to specific future obligations. It's the contractual equivalent of pinky swearing, except enforceable in court.

⚖️ Legal

Advanced

Adjudicate

The fancy legal way of saying "to make a decision," except it takes seventeen months, four hundred pages of briefs, and enough billable hours to buy a yacht. Judges adjudicate; the rest of us just argue at Thanksgiving dinner.

⚖️ Legal

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